Our new Indie Games subforum is now open for business in G&T. Go and check it out, you might land a code for a free game. If you're developing an indie game and want to post about it, follow these directions. If you don't, he'll break your legs! Hahaha! Seriously though.

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The Free MMO Überlist (updated: Oct 11)

Goal of this thread: make other PA'ers aware of free MMOs and point out whether these games are actually fun to play or should be avoided. I hope people will check on this list when they want to play a free game and have the balls to jump into the retarded world of free MMOs. There is fun to be had in them, really. Just not in all of them and not for everyone and certainly not when you're jumping in them with high expectations.

MMORPG
#-O

Spoiler:

2029 Online
RTS/RPG hybrid, placing your favourite fantasy races in a sci-fi setting. Graphics are 2D and look dated, interface makes JamesDM's brain hurt and their website does not provide much in the way of information. Please let me know if you know more.

4story/Gates of Andaron
A game that looks almost identical to WoW, but with characters a bit like FFXI. They seem to have copy/paste'd a bit too much from those games, because there's nothing remotely original in this game.

9dragons
Acclaim has a thing for games starting with a number. 3D grind-mmo based around Asian myths. The classes have fairly original backgrounds, but they all boil down to killing loads and loads of mobs. Everything about this game looks a bit dated. It was fun to play this game for a while, though.

Adventure Quest
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.

Adventure Quest Worlds
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.

Age of Armor
A game that looks a tad bit like transformers/gundam wing/whatever other mecha stuff you can think of. Not sure about the actual gameplay, but it looks decent enough and come on: giant robots.

AirRivalsPenny Arcade thread
Space Cowboy restarted, this game is a hybrid between a space shooter and a MMORPG. The game has been going strong for a few years with gpotato, but they recently shut it down. Now someone else is going to host it. And deliver a patch for it.

Anarchy Online classicwikiPenny-Arcade thread
Part of this game is for free, the original game plus three expansions. The rest of the game is only accessible for paying costumers. These two groups can play together. Anarchy Online is one of the very few successful MMOs not set in a fantasy theme. It is very complex, even without the extra expansions you can buy.

Angels Online
A 2D game with sprites where you control a cute little character and can deploy robots and all sorts of pets to fight with you against an endless stream of cute mobs. The game looks horribly dated and the features it offers hardly make the game unique. See also: Wonderland Online.

Aranock Online
Spiritual successor of Astonia. This old MMO looks terrible and the game seems to be focused on people who do not play games for fun. It's way too old fashioned to be a viable option for us modern age gamers.

Archlord
Game didn't cut it when it was Pay to Play, so they're trying to cut their losses by making it Free to Play. By free MMO standards this game is pretty decent. Game has a strong focus on PvP. Main selling point is the "Archlord" every once in a while there's a massive battle and the winner becomes Archlord. No idea how popular it is.

Arctic MUD
A MUD that started back up in 1992. It has PK'ing, full loot and certain items are literally unique, so if someone has a specific shield, no one else can have it, unless they murder that person. If you are nostalgic and old, you might enjoy this.

Asda Story
The quote on their site made me giggle. Besides that: this is a game you should play with someone else. You can be soul mates and share exp between each other. You also gain access to special skills. The game looks painfully cute and is obviously tailored towards girls. If anything, it will be fun to see desperate teenagers asking you to be their soul mate.

Ashen Empires
A rather old game, graphics look dated. Fairly standard by the looks of it. Vile Toxin had the following to say about this: Really fun PvP system(free for all), MANY items to craft, lots of tradeskills to master. Paying members also gain access to their revived game. He wrote that years ago. The game is still supported, though.

BattleKnight
In-browser mmorpg in which you develop a knight in shining armour.

BlackMoon Chronicles
An ugly 2D MMO from Canada. It seems to be based on a graphic novel, but the game looks so bad that I don't actually believe that. It's your standard point-n-click RPG.

Bitefight
Vampire vs Werewolf in-browser game. Focus on PvP, but no useful information available on their site.

Bounty Bay Online
Free to play or monthly subscription
A game set in the age of sailing to far off places and killing the locals. It used to be pay to play only, but a Free to Play server got released. The game is in full 3D and has a heavy focus on naval combat. Buttcleft had a lot of lag while playing and every time you close the game it opens a webpage. These are bad signals.

CABAL Online
Open Beta for North-America
Played this game for a while. It plays like World of Warcraft on speed. Combat is fast paced and good looking. However, that is pretty much all there is to this game: combat. All quests involve ripping through loads of enemies, all levels must be gained by ripping through enemies, all every ever has you ripping through loads of enemies. You don't really have to play together with anyone else until very late in the game. At the rate you're leveling this takes months. It's fun a for a while and it looks pretty.

Cartoon Network Universe: FusionBall
In-browser 3D MMO for the kids. For an in-browser game it looks surprisingly good and it is being made by a big company. The game has no classes, but you collect "nanos" which give you abilities.

Conquer Online
Ridiculous grind MMO set in medieval China. Everything boils down to killing hundreds upon hundreds of identical mobs. It doesn't look very pretty as well. It is somewhat enjoyable for a few hours, though. After that it's time to uninstall it. Ask SkutSkut about it some time, it's kinda funny when he does that thing that makes his head turn red and veins pop out.

Crazy Tao
A 2D mmo which gives you control to 3 pets at once. Besides that it looks like standard MMO fare. This appears to be a predecessor of Eudemons, also hosted on that 91.com thing.

Cronous
Grind-based Korean MMO. It has a lot of skills, though. And there's something about controlling castles. It's obviously aimed at boys, what with the bulky characters and ridiculous monsters.

Daimonin
Little European MMO. No screenshots on their sites, which usually indicated that the game looks horrible.

Dark Eden
Grind-based Korean MMO in a fairly unique, gothic setting. Good ol' vampire vs human, but with sci-fi weapons tossed in the mix. The previous thread warned against heaps of hackers etc, but considering the game is still going strong and receives regular updates, it appears that problem isn't really *that* game-breaking. The game looks a bit like Diablo 2, but much slower.

Darks Swords
Ugly 2D game claiming to be revolutionary in its social aspects. No idea where they base that on. The site looks smooth, though so they aren't complete idiots.

Dead Frontier
Some sort of top-down zombie survival MMO thing. Think Diablo1, but with zombies and guns. You get to fight in instanced areas and you can decide to go for a single player instance or a multiplayer one. Multiplayer is laggy as fuck and you'll die in a slideshow. The game has a cash shop, but half the game's elements aren't in (yet). If an apocalypse happened and this turned out to be the only game left on earth I might consider playing it.

Deco Online
An Asian game with a strong focus on PvP, cute graphics and a lot of skills to tune your toon with. The game is a huge ever-grind, but leveling is fast, there's just no good reason to waste time on this game. As with most PvP-focused games a lot depends on balance and if it is worth fighting over something with a bunch of 13 year old boys with big mouths.

Deicide
Generic looking fantasy mmo, they seem to be very proud of their 3D sound. I have no idea what to make of this.

Dekaron/2moons
Asian styled fast paced MMO. Main selling points are its original story, nice concept art and raids that end in a free for all death match. Gamehi appears to have taken over and the game has received some new classes and has a much nicer website.

Deliantra
A 2D MMO with a strong focus on exploring and there is a strong focus on playing together. The game is being made by a very small team. At the moment there's only like 10 people playing on an average evening, so it's really unknown/unpopular. The tutorial is very good, so at least try that out and cheer up the developers or something? I don't know, they sound adorable.

Discworld MUD
A MUD based on the glorious books of Terry Pratchett. Various classes and subclasses, shops, houses, newspapers etc.

Dofus
What a name for a game. Maybe it's referring to the players or maybe it's referring to who made this game. I don't know. Anyway, the game looks horribly cute and not very hardcore. It's 2D and plays in Flash. It plays kinda like Final Fantasy Tactics, but you only control one character.

Dragon Fable
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.

Dragon Sky
Yet another ugly MMO based on Asian mythology. There is nothing that sets this game apart from other MMOs. This game automatically installs Xfire for no apparent reason. Avoid this game.

Dream of Mirror OnlineEuropean versionPenny-Arcade thread
Cell shaded graphics, lots of classes and a system that makes teaming up with other people actually interesting. The Goons of SA also seem to appreciate this, so there must be some redeeming value to it? A note for European players: we can't play with North America at the moment.

Dungeons & Dragons OnlinePA thread
After charging a monthly fee for a few years they're now going f2p with a cash shop to buy more content from. The game follows the D&D rulebooks up to a level, but instead of the turn-based it's all in real time, there's still dice to be rolled, but it's all behind the scenes. The game is heavily instanced and requires teamplay...pretty much like the source material.

Dungeon Fighter Online
Announced at the 2009 GCD as a 2D sidescrolling beat-em-up like Double Dragon. It's kind of like Dragonica, but it appears less polished and according to PAers it sucks more. Still, not a terrible game.

Dungeon Runners
Name of the game says it all: it's a dungeon crawler. This game has a lot of humour in it, mostly at the expense of *other* MMOs and Diablo. The game offers F2P content and P2P for extra utilities such as the stacking op potions and allowance to wear special (better) gear. Not quite sure if it has enough content for freebooters, but it should be fun for a few days.

Entropia Universe
in game currence<-->RL money system
This game tries to market itself as a sort of reality 2.0, but without a crazy AI trying to kill you. No idea what the fun in this game would be, but it had a turnover of 360$M in 2006. They also took a license on the CRY-engine 2. Again, no idea what the point of this game is, other than throwing money at it and maybe making profit out of it.

EstiahPenny Arcade thread
In browser MMORPG which recently started. The site looks very slick and it seems to offer a sort of M:tG sort of gameplay where your actions are determined by the cards you play. Lezard says you can enjoy this game on as little as 10 minutes per day.

Eternal Lands
Has been in beta for years, doesn't look like they're really trying to sell this. Maybe cute for a while, maybe you'll even see another player. I don't know, this looks more like something some guys made after work than a full-blown MMO.

Eternum Online
An in-browser hideous 2D MMO. It seems to play like Runescape, but it somehow managed to be uglier than that.

Ether Saga Online
(beta-something)
From the same company that released Perfect World in the US. It looks ridiculously cute. Strong focus on getting a pet to do the dirty work for you, also a ridiculous uninspiring grind. Perfect World remains the flagship of this company.

Eudemons Online
Cutesy Asian MMO with 3D isometric view. It seems to offer a smooth experience with a strong focus on community.

EUO
An extremely old school mmorpg, they like to compare themselves to the early Ultima games and with that they mean: just as ugly and complex.

ExteelPA thread
MMO with mechs. Heavy focus on PvP. Looks pretty enough, but there is a lot of grinding to be had and if you're not playing with a premade team you're pretty much fucked. Frosteey also states that gear is completely out of balance. I guess it's fun if you're really into mechs, but otherwise I would avoid it.

FaitH
No idea what the point behind this game is, from their site: FaitH is a team-based Massively Multiplayer Game. Lead your Kingdom to Religious victory by kidnaping Children of Targar and wreaking Chaos! across the Aloradius! Looks very dated to boot. Best to avoid

Fallen Sword
In-browser fantasy RPG. Not much in the way of extra information on their site.

Fiesta (Same game on gamigo.de)
Not so sure if this game is such a party. It looks like a standard grinding game, at least it has asdw support and tab-targeting. Graphics score high on the *schoolgirl voice* kawaii *cough* -scale and are kinda smooth. Classes are standard, site doesn't elaborate much on anything.

Florensia
Open beta
A cutesy looking Japanese MMO set in the age of sailing. It's like a cute version of Voyage Century, maybe this game is more for your baby sister?. The website looks rather decent for a free MMO, there's no Engrish on it and the art style has a certain charm to it which is enhanced by the lighting.

Fly for Fun
Don't be fooled by the title! Flying is not fun in this game. It's about as much fun as it is in World of Warcaft; which is to say-- kinda neat for a while, and then you're back to grinding. This game is a grind-MMO from Korea. Everything is pretty basic, grind grind grind level grind grind grind. Et cetera. Probably fun if you can play with friends.

FOnline:2238
A MMO version of Fallout 1/2. It's hosted on blogspot...Perhaps the actual game does not suck, but I doubt that. You need several files from a Fallout game to even run this game.

Fordana
Small MMORPG being developed by two people. It's set in a fantasy world and you are a hero, that's pretty much the jest of it.

Free RealmsPA thread
SOE's free MMO providing all sorts of entertainment for the younger gamer. It looks fairly cute, you can play chess, do races, burn down monsters, dress up your toon and tons of other things. All in all, this seems like some sort of 3D alternative to what Gaia and Neopets do on their websites. Just provide tons of silly mini-games but with achievements that don't go away after closing the game.

Fung Wan Online
Western version evaporated from the internet, Malaysian version still has a website, but it does not seem to be kosher. Best to avoid.

Furcadia
...Yup. A MMO for furries. It's almost completely focused on community aspects to boot.

Ghost Online
Sidescrolling 2D fast paced grind MMO from Korea. If you dig Maple Story you probably dig this as well. For everyone else: best to protect your sanity.

GhostX
A cell-shaded MMO beat-em-up set in a futuristic setting. This game sets itself further apart from the mainstream by using nano-bots: weapons that you can personalize to your liking, or something. Hit detection is off and combat manages to get boring by having all enemies fall to the ground in 3-4 hits.

Gladiatus
In-browser RPG that puts you in the codpiece of a gladiator who kills everything that looks creepy.

GodsWar
Cutesy MMO in an ancient Greek setting. Nothing sets it apart from other MMOs.

Golemizer
An in-browser MMO in which you are a mad scientist and create a golem to do your laundry and fighting.

Graal Online
Hideous 2D MMO with a strong focus on the community. No idea why anyone would play it.

Gunz
Open beta
This game has been in development for a long time. The artwork looks amazing and the idea of a FPS mixed with an MMORPG is original and exciting. No idea about the actual gameplay, but a lot of people have said that it was fun for a while.

HellMOOPenny Arcade Thread
Promoted as a text based MMO Fallout. This MUD says it gives you absolute freedom, meaning you can rape and abuse women to your liking, fuck dead dogs oh and maybe kill some mutants while you're there anyway. This game can best be described as "way fucking old skool, dude!" Check out the PA thread if you feel like raping some dead babies.

Hero Online
Asian fantasy 3D MMORPG with old-fashioned graphics. Plays like diablo, but doesn't reallly have any skills and is very slow. Huge grind-fest.

Hostile Space
(site only accessible on internet explorer
A space MMO with ugly 2D graphics that started in 1997. Combat is "twitch-based" and the focus is on playing in small groups. The game has a lot of kinky alien races and there's a lot of exploring to do for the Doras among us. Even though the game looks pretty horrible it might hide some beauty in its old and wrinkly shell.

Illarion
A 2D old MMORPG that sells itself as the game in which you don't have to fight. Strong focus on roleplaying.

Illutia
Formerly known as Aspereta. It's a 2D cutesy grind MMO in a fantasy setting.

Irth Worlds
Pretty old fantasy MMO at the end of it's life cycle. The game was pretty decent, but the game is mostly dead. Check it out before it breaks down for good.

Jade Dynasty
A standard fair Asian mythology based grind MMO, it has pretty graphics and an interesting story. EXP is easy to get: you get it from medidating or by setting up a script so you can do other things while your toon levels.

Kal online
Game looks generic. Site is full of Engrish and lies about being the first 3D mmo set in Asian mythology. Try at your own risk, I suppose.

Katsuro
A game with no information about gameplay available on the internet. All I can figure out is that it takes place in medieval Japan, that it is in-browser and that it is published by Gameforge. My conclusion is that this is an in-browser poop flinging game.

Kingdom of LoathingPA thread
Hilarious in-browser MMO. The graphics are amusing, the fact that there is a haiku chat channel makes the game awesome. You only get a limited amount of actions per day and you navigate the world from screen to screen.

Land of Magic
This game has been live since 1994. Players from way back when are now NPCs in the game. Actual gameplay, however, appears to be hidden away on their site. It is clear that a MMO from 1994 is not going to be easy on new players.

Lands of Hope
In-browser MMORPG developed by one guy. It appears to offer a full range of functions usually reserved for bigger titles. Sounds strangely hopeful.

Last Chaos (Aeria version)
Asian fantasy grind MMO with fairly decent graphics. Malaysian version is more up to date than the Aeria version, but Aeria's site usually loads a lot faster. Take your pick, I guess.

LaTale
A game like Maple Story but with more fluid combat, also just as ridiculously cute. Probably still going to be an evergrind.

Legend of Ares
Fantasy MMO with a strong focus on PvP, it looks rather bland and the site offers about zero information besides "hey, it has pvp and you get rewards for clubbing people to death.

Legends of Zork
In-browser MMO that works with limited action points per day. ZombieMambo seems to enjoy it.

Legends of Qin
3D MMO set in Chinese mythology. They say they offer quests beyond the 'kill X' or 'deliver Y to Z' and they give a lot of in-game information on these quests. Their site doesn't really tell you how the game plays. Guess *someone* will have to check this one out.

Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu
Fantasy anime MMO with a heavy focus on economy and politics. According to froggy it is nice. According to Mith it is as exciting as Progress Quest (which is to say: no it is not exciting).

Luna Online
Standard Korean grind MMO, this one has some extra classes to evolve to and you can build a farm with your in-game family. Everything else? Just another cutesy grind MMO.

Lunia
A hybrid between an MMO and a beat-em-up. This is the next step in MMOs: no auto-attack, no automatic anything. You attack by hitting the attack buttons, you dodge by jumping out of the way. The combat in this game is fantastic, there are a lot of items to improve your character with and there's enough content to keep you busy for weeks. I'm not sure if the game is out of beta yet, though.

MabinogiPenny Arcade thread
Celshaded graphics, fast paced combat. Graphics are scoring high on "cute" and "kawaii". You can react to what the mob you're fighting does with counterattacks or defences, besides that it plays like a normal MMO. Quests are standard, but there are some dungeons you can run in with a challenging boss at the end of the ride. Unless you're coughing up money you can only create one character. Recently a lot of features went from cash shop to free.

Magic World Online
It's a new game, but already looks dated: Isometric camera, site looks incredibly cheesy and the art direction seems to love glow sticks and Asian mythology. The game seems to offer everything you expect out of a MMORPG, but adds player housing and marriage. All in all it doesn't stand out in any way.

Maple Story
Extremely popular for no particular reason. Only play this if you hate yourself. It's a 2D sidescrolling MMO where you will be grinding monsters for an eternity to gain a level, then you repeat the process. This is not my idea of "fun".

Martial Heroes
Based on martial arts, this appears to be a mundane grind MMO. It appears they have received a shitton of complaints about all sorts of things, so I would advice against playing this game.

Mech Quest
An in-browser 'lunch break mmo'. It's just a whole lot of grinding in ugly flash environments. The game is tailored for young players and has a strong focus on the pay to play aspects.

Metin 2
Asian Fantasy MMO with fast paced combat. And the possibility to fight while mounted. The game is in 3D but looks very dated. Classes are uninspired, text is hard to read, quests are vague and exp gain is slow.

Minions of Mirth
From the old thread: Notes (from Philthy): Basically, an EQ clone. And a decent one, at that. It has a few twists. Instead of controlling one player, you can control up to 6. An entire party. You can then play on the multiplayer server and group up with other players parties and do raids this way. The game also can run in server mode, and you can basically run your own server. You can edit everything within the server, add your own mobs and zones, edit items and quests, stats and models. You can also submit these to the devs to be included on the actual live server as well.

Mix Master
2D MMO with the unique function that you get to mix various components and monsters to create your own awesometastic monster.

Monster and Me
A MMO that takes its influences from neopets and pokémon. Art looks horrible. There should be no reason one would play this game.

Monato Esprit
Cutesy Asian grind MMO. It doesn't seem too bad, although the focus on the cash shop sounds iffy. Looks nice enough for a game that's already been out for a year or two.

Mo Siang Online
A Chinese MMO with very fast combat and very pretty spell effects. The website and game made me very confused, everything seems to move at 2x speed or something. The client is only 450MB so I guess that is nice.

MU Online
Game is tailored for boys, lots of muscled characters and gritty looks. Everything looks horribly bland and uninteresting. No idea about the combat, but it advertises itself as "easy to get in to". Maybe fun for a few hours.

Myth War II
A 2D MMO with hand-painted models. The game only runs in 800x600 so everything looks blurry. Combat is a mix of real-time with turn based, think JRPG. There's also a strong social aspect to this game, players can get in a position of power through politics or can fabricate rumours that might turn out to be true (???). Kasanagi tells you to avoid this outdated POS. This is a slightly updated version of the original, which was closed Feb 13th, 2009.

Neo Steam
This one has a very charming neopunk-ish art style, a lot of classes and races, has wasd-support and feels pretty smooth. It is at it's core a very boring and Korean grind MMO, though, don't be fooled.

NIDA
Fast-paced 'action' MMO. They're proud of their good looks and constant rewards for playing, but I can't figure out what it is you actually do in the game.

NosTale
2D cutesy grind MMO in which you can capture monsters to do your laundry and fighting.

Nowhere Else and Beyond
In-browser MMO with 2D graphics. You move around from screen to screen with the arrow buttons. It doesn't look half bad, but there seems to be little reason to play this game. You can check it out without having to register, which is nice.

Oberin
MAC ONLY MMO! It's been going for 8 years. But seriously guys, it's Mac only.

Ogre Island
Flash-based MMO. Looks fun for 30 minutes or something? At least it doesn't pretend to be something it is not. Does anyone know more about this?

Oz
Community MMO based around cute characters. Appears to cater to teenage girls, one of the games is "spot the pedo"*, others include fishing and making out**

Posts

Pandora Saga
Asian 3D MMO with the standard classes, a bunch of races including dwarves and standard gameplay. It's all rather standard fair, but the site looks decent and it doesn't look very ugly, so I guess it can't be too bad.

Perfect WorldPenny-Arcade thread
Fantasy MMO with a very elaborate character customizer. The game looks a lot like World of Warcaft, but without the unpopular parts such as ugly races and small swords. What it does have? Huge swords and wings and wings made out of huge swords. The game does look very nice and it has some quality. It's still a huge grindfest, but it's a decent one.

Phoenix Dynasty Online
An isometric point-n-click Asian style game with 4 classes and some options to make your avatar unique. Big focus on playing in groups. There are a few quests and there is crafting in place. Interestingly mobs don't drop loot, but you have to make stuff yourself. Skutskut seems to like it.

Pirates of the Caribbean Online
(10$/mth to get rid of ads)
Customize your pirate, get a pirate ship, recruit a crew and do what pirates do. Game looks pretty, it's published by Disney and it has Jack Sparrow. Alas, the Free to Play is a money-making scheme, according to korodullin you have to pay a fee to complete a quest or to level up. Try again later, Disney. D:

Pi Story
It's a 2D sidescrolling MMO that appears to be less retarded than Maple Story. Still, it looks very dated and the gameplay video on their site makes it look like a game from 10 years ago.

PlaneShift
An MMO in development by an Italian company, it looks fairly original for a fantasy-mmo and they're trying to stay away from the common mmo-traps like grinding. This game has been in, what they call, tech-demo stage for a while, it appears that they can't afford a QA-team and decided to let the world play around with it while they keep on updating.

Pokemon Global
Fan-made open-source online Pokémon using Java, Slick (OpenGL) and Apache Mina. They're still early in development and everything is very slow, but it seems there's some folks with experience on their team.

Pokémon Indigo
MMO Pokémon in Java. Very slow. No idea how this site can exist.

Ragnarok OnlinePA thread
The mother of all cheap grind-MMOs. If you're looking for someone or something to blame for half the titles on this list...look no further. This game is enjoyable if you can play with others. On the Free server you only get 75% of exp, everything is more expensive and takes longer. If you were were already bored with the normal version, you'll hate this one more.

Rakion
From the old list: Fantasy action deathmatch. Shoot arrows, spells and stab people, or play co-op and stab monsters. Based on the Serious Sam game-engine, and remarkably good.

RAN Online/Rosso version
3D MMO placing your standard classes in a more modern and urban setting. Seems to be standard grindfest.

Rappelz
It looks wonderful, but it isn't anything new. Huge grind and you don't *need* anyone else to play with, everyone else is just getting in the way between you and your next level.

Red Stone
Game looks like Diablo2, has a ton of classes that can - if you have the right level - transform into something else. Like a mage can turn into a werewolf as to stand a chance against magic resistant mobs etc. My previous entry for this game was needlessly negative it seems, this might just be some classical fun.

Red War
ugly looking 3D dungeon crawler. You can own your own castle. Looks like a Diablo clone.

Requiem
A horror MMO, if you love blood, slime and sharp teeth, you might like this game. It has asdw-controls and ragdolls. Actual gameplay is pretty grind-happy.

RF Online
The game is a pretty basic Korean grindfest, but one of the factions consists of robots. It's also very pretty. (thanks NAND NOR) The site also points out that there's Realm vs Realm combat to be had, which can be pretty fun. Recently changed hands and had exp gain increased by 300%.

RohanPA thread
Free to Play, currently in beta
Asian looking MMO with more quests than usual and some bonuses for partying and PvP. Xanathus seems to enjoy it.

Rose OnlinePA thread
Kinda like Ragnarok Online, only 3D. Typical cute grind-mmo. Probably fun for a while, if you can play with friends. The game used to be Pay to Play for a long time, but now it is free to play. It uses Gameguard, see 3rd post for details.

RPG World Online
Most generic name ever. It has been around since 2000 and is still being updated every now and again. The whole thing is created in Visual Basic, so that's quite a feat. Does not a good game make.

Rubies of Eventide
Used to be Pay to Play, but wasn't successful. It got resurrected by some fans and has been going strong since then. The game looks very dated and is far from an intuitive experience. Unless you just love playing old shoddy games I would avoid this.

Runescape
(more content available for subscribers)
Long Running Java Based Fantasy MMO: Good lunchtime game with decent questing, there is enough to do to keep you occupied for a while. Runescape is fundamentally all there, combat is decent if a bit repetitive, quests are entertaining, there are many different skills to train and a lot of variation in how they are trained (JamesDM).

Runes of MagicPA thread
A game with a class system like Guild Wars and graphics like World of Warcraft. It has all the standard functions of modern MMOs including PvP, player housing and fashion armour slots. It also lists wasd-support as a feature. So yeah, it sounds like it could be a decent clone mmo.

Scions of Fate
A popular cutesy MMO from Asia. The game started off as a comic and then they made a MMO out of that (...let us all hope this does not become the trend in Hollywood, Pirates o/t Carribean Online was already a painful experience). The game seems to pretty standard MMO fair, but I'd love to hear more about it from anyone who has played it.

Seal Online
A MMO based around clubbing baby seals (and various other cute animals)! It's standard MMO fare, only hardly anyone plays this game. It has a fairly original combo-system and offers tons of customizing for your character's battle prowess. However, it's a huge grind and it doesn't help that you move very slowly.

Secret of the Solstice
Ragnarok Online clone executed properly. Cute 2D graphics, endless grinding and some fun classes. If you go, bring a friend, it can be terribly boring.

Shadowbane
used to be Pay to Play, but wasn't successful. The developers have made the game 100% free, which is very kind of them. It's high fantasy, 3D and gets updated regularly. The starting area is fun, but it gets boring after that. Probably fun for a few days.

Shadow of Legend
A MMORPG for your handheld devices. It offers 16 classes and besides that it seems to be standard grind mmo fair. Seems like a very elaborate and fancy game for a handheld device.

Shadow World
An extremely small 2D MMO from Germany. No screenshots on their site and only 10 people online at a Sunday evening. Game is so bad that JamesDM almost gave up before reaching the first waypoint of his first quest. Let us let this game die in peace.

Shaiya
This one gets hailed for its pretty graphics and they hail themselves for their Realm v Realm combat, meaningful PvP and everything else you expect out of a MMORPG these days. Interesting is that there are various difficulties to play the game at and you unlock more as you level up. Depending on your difficulty you will gain more stat-points per level. Not sure if it isn't just an excuse to make people grind more. It does use Gameguard (see 3rd post for more info) so play at your own risk.

Silkroad Online
Game looks pretty, setting is original and combat is solid. However: most characters look the same, combat is repetitive, all there is to do is grinding and a bit of PvP. Enjoyable for a day or two.

Spellborn
A Dutch MMO that failed commercially. The game looks pretty and it has interesting real time combat. The game focuses on PvP.

Stone Age 2
A casual MMO set in the stone age. You can get pets and let them do the dirty work for you. Zombiemambo says the art style is exactly like the old Pokemon games. The game is aimed at the young kids, what with this stuff on their site: color me. Omega71 recommends you avoid this game at all costs, he says it's aimed at 5 years old and broken enough to become unplayable.

SUN/Webzen
Asian MMO with a strong focus on instanced play (including solo) and you get to set up your own mission maps. Game looks very detailed and pretty, but is a boring grind at heart.

Sword of the New World
A baroque-ish MMO with very pretty graphics. Main selling point is that you control 3 characters at once and that you can develop these three characters separately. Fun for weeks, if you can look past the retarded community and the ever-grind. Used to be called Grenado Espada.

Tales of Pirates (aka: Pirate King)
Generic cute grind MMO. This game is ridiculous, it's not pirate-y at all and most fun is to be had on land. You can get ships early on to sail to different islands, but this is not really exciting. You can make a lot of profit by putting a mechanical arm on your ship and loot crates from sea. You can sell those at harbours to make enough profit to always have the best gear available. And that is really the only interesting thing I have to say about this game.

Talisman Online
A 3D MMO based on Random Asian Mythology, game looks like a badly executed version of WoW with the settings on "my pc is a wet cereal box". The game kind of forces you to work together with other players to get anything done. There's also a "Talisman system" which boils down to a system where you can upgrade your weapon and your skills are dependent on what stuff you have equipped.

TerraWorld
Very small 2D cutesy MMO. Site doesn't offer much information. I would avoid this.

Tibia
2D, sprites, weird perspective. Looks extremely dated. This game has been going strong for ten (10!) years now and still has thousands of players.

Titan
A pretty 3D MMO set in China, just like in real life portals to hell popped up and hellspawn is flooding the countryside. It's up to the player to mow these mobs down with some fancy skills and there's also something about 'Battle-Formation' which sounds like skills that only work in parties, but I can't tell. Anyway, it doesn't look half bad.

TPPC
Text based in-browser online Pokemon game. Cross-breed between Urban Death and Pokemon.

TresholdPenny Arcade Thread
This is a MUD, a text based game. That means there are no pretty pictures to fawn over. The game enforces role playing, if you're not acting in character you'll get warned. If you don't need graphics and don't mind putting a lot of time into coming up with stories of your own you should really check out the PA thread.

Trickster Online
Extremely cute MMORPG. It emits rays of cuteness, really. This is a game like Ragnarok Online, so you do need a group of friends to level with, or rather...talk with while in a group so you all get massive exp bonuses. When you're in a group you can earn up to twice as much exp per mob, so everyone is just grouped up, without really having to work together or anything. Besides that it has some fun classes and it is rather popular.

TRPG
Ancient MMO where only roughly 10 people can be on a server. Setting is standard fantasy stuff. Eventually everyone is either cheating or grieving. Nerdtendo seems to like it.

Twelve Sky
Portrays itself as a more mature MMORPG. I'm not really convinced by this, at its core it's just another grind-mmo, only with darker graphics. If anyone has played this: please tell me how it was.

Vanilla Gate
A cutesy free MMO currently in beta, according to the Engrish write-up on mmorpg.com it is fairly interesting because everything is done by way of multiplayer/bot maps. So it's like a shooter, only with less guns and more ~^_^~``. Actual gameplay is supposed standard MMO fair. They're also proud of their educational mini-games that teach you English and Chinese words. It is, however, obvious that their translator never played this game, because it's full of Engrish.

Voyage Century
The better alternative to Bounty Bay Online. Beautiful MMORPG set in the Age of Sailing. It offers naval combat and trading. Less lag, more fun than BBO.

Warrior Epic
open beta
Interesting detail is that you are leader of a mercenary guild and that you send out fighters on missions, then you take direct control of that fighter and s/he gains exp. If you level enough you can get some new characters. Nearly all features require your credit card (although it is possible to sell off your mercenaries for cash shop cash) and it is a gigantic grind. Not cool.

Water Margin Online
Absurdly cute looking Asian fantasy MMO. Support seems to be focused on Malaysia.

Well of Souls
Cheap looking MMO with the special feature that you can create your own quests, maps, player skins, music and servers.

Windslayer
2D sidescrolling MMO. Graphics look like pixel-art and the game seems to be going for pure brainless action. If anyone knows more about it: do tell.

Wonderland Online
A cutesy 2D game with sprites. It seems to focus mostly on community things and fighting is just one of the things you can do. Fighting is done in some sort of Tekken/Street Fighter kind of way. The game looks very dated in all aspects they show on their website. Game looks extremely similar to Angels Online.

The World
Horrible looking 2D mmo vaguely based off the .hack games. There's also an (even more horrible looking) 3D version of this coming up. Judging from the site my only advice is: AVOID AVOID AVOID.

World of Kung Fu
Based on Chinese mythology. The game tries to break away from standard mmo fair by introducing complex economic and social aspects, you can start your own family (with drama! according to their website) or martial arts school and there's a lot of interaction with GMs and other players. Actual combat is a rather uninspiring grindfest, though.

Wurm OnlinePenny Arcade thread
Tutorial Island Free to Play
This game...wow. This is probably the most hardcore thing I have ever played. If you die in here and can't find your corpse, you should reroll. This game is based around surviving in a harsh environment through working together with others. Although the game doesn't look stellar, the system requirements are high because it runs in java. See the PA thread if you don't want to be killed within the first 10 minutes of playing.

Xiah
Generic Asian Grind-mmo set in a just as generic Asian setting. Fun for a few hours.

Zero Online
A grind MMORPG set in space with mechs and pew pew! The game looks fairly nice, but is executed rather poorly.

zOMG (gaia online)
MMO from the social networking/forums site Gaia Online. The game is tailored towards people who are on Gaia, so if you don't feel like joining their site it is not worth it to make an account just for this game. It is a full blown MMORPG, but it's just not worth grinding for if you don't care about the rest of the site.

Zu Online
Cel-shaded graphics, fastpaced combat. Looks pretty enough and it has asdw-support. There are a lot of quests, but to get new skills you have to grind a lot. Like a prohibitive amount of the same few missions over and over. Fun for a week or two.

MMO-strategy

Spoiler:

Artifact
A MMORTS with 2D sprites. This game has been out since 1999 and it still has some people playing it. News section has not been updated since April 2007. Probably not the game for those looking for some easily accessible fun.

Atlantica Online
Currently in open beta
A stunning looking TBS offering a persistent world in which guilds can control cities. You can control up to 27 characters on the battlefield whom you can tune just like you want to. However, they age and lose power when they get older. That makes important to keep attracting young blood to fight for you.

Atulos Online
Ugly old 2D MMORTS in a generic fantasy setting. Only for those dreaming it was 1998 and your dad just bought a modem.

Bang! Howdy
A fast-paced RTS game set in a Wild West setting. It has robots wearing cowboy hats so it can't be bad.

Battle Position
An arcade-y Korean multiplayer game. Looks like Worms with tanks. Art is atrocious. Still going strong after release last year.

Dark Elf
A hideous Czech MMORTS in 2D set in some sort of Lord o/t Rings setting. Strong focus on PvP.

Deepolis
An in-browser 2D submarine game in which you trade, re-enact Das Boot and try to reduce other ships to canned tuna.

Dofus-Arena
Whereas you only control one character in Dofus, Dofus-Arena gives you control over a group of characters, making it into some sort of FF Tactics MMO.

Dreamlords
MMORTS with some RPG things tossed in for good measure. The game looks very promising, providing a full MMO experience with enough checks and balances built in to keep it fun for all players. Half the game can be played in-browser. All in all it's a lot of management for minimum enjoyment.

Earth: 2025
With Asdef's words: a post apocalyptic text based MMO strategy game. You create one country and rule it. It's turn-based. The goal is to come up with the highest net value. You can do this by whatever means necessary.

eRepublik
In-browser management sim that puts you in the shoes of a leader of a world power. Site looks surprisingly decent.

Evony
These guys ripped some sprites from other games, overcharge their players for chatting and call their game the best thing ever. Avoid.

Gunbound
Worms with tanks, very popular. Blow your friends to pieces in cute tanks. It's popular for a reason, it's easy to understand, funny to play and looks cute.

Ikariam US/Ikariam int.PA threadWiki
Free in-browser empire building game wherein you take control of a Greek city state. The game is still in development, but it is a really smooth experience and it offers quite a lot of depth without becoming needlessly complex. There are also a few dozen rules to make people play fair, so you don't have to fear total annihilation while you're asleep.

Immortal Cities: Nile Online
In-browser management sim putting you in the sandals of a Pharaoh. The game is owned by Tilted Mill, the guys who made Children of the Nile, so they have experience with this kind of thing and they're a legit company. I haven't checked it out myself, but it seems like a neater version of Ikariam.

Kingdom of Drakkar
Old and ugly 2D MMORTS in a generic fantasy setting. Not much in the way of extra information.

Mythos
Not the hack-n-slash game. This is just a greek village management sim.

Navy FieldwikiPenny Arcade thread
In this game you control a ship in WWII. You gain levels by winning battles against other opponents. It is quite popular, check the wiki or PA thread for more detailed information.

The Reincarnation
In-browser empire builder, you take on the role of a mage and your goal is to rule the world. Wage war and/or trade with other players. The game has been around for years, first as Archmage and now as this. It's still being updated.

Saga
A 3D MMORTS offering all classical fantasy races. Build your own town and country, conquer others etc. The free version offers most features the subscribers have, but some of them are unavailable. It looks pretty enough.

Seafight
An in-browser tactical game where you control a 17th century pirate ship and play games against other players. Graphics are fairly decent for an in-browser game, I have no idea about the actual gameplay.

Starport: Galactic Empires
They market themselves as "the best free MMO game on the internet!" Which makes me rise an eyebrow. The game is a 2D 4X space game that resets every few weeks as to appoint a winner. JamesDM seems to like it so far.

Shattered Galaxy
Stolen from old list: Really quite neat. A bit like Starcraft, with each player on the battlefield controlling a squad of units in capture-and-hold missions, and occasional dungeon crawls against alien armies.

Travian
In-browser strategy game in which you control a village in the ancient world.

Tribal Wars
In-browser strategy game in which you control a medieval town. Very similar to Travian.

Active World
Kinda like Second Life, but a little bit more structured. So basically: the internet in 3D.

Age of Lore
Hideous in-browser mmo, the site does not tell mewhat the gameplay is like, but it appears that it's one of those "click this button once every day to spend your action points"-ones. AVOID AVOID AVOID

Armada Online
Loosely based on the DC game Armada. This is Asteroids the MMO. With giant bio-mechanical enemy crabs. Six races split into two factions. The game is based around several different zones. All zones are semi-instanced, a maximum of 16 players can be in a zone, if you try and join a zone that's full a new instance will start and any other players who join will join that zone. (shamelessly copy/paste'd from Alistair Hutton)

Astro EmpiresPA thread
An in-browser space-management-sim. Build a bunch of stuff and send it off to pew pew other players.

Audition
This is a rhythm game: some music plays and you have to push the right buttons at the right time. Graphics look horrible and they somehow managed to get grinding into a DDR clone. I am shocked and amazed.

Battleswarm
A shooter/RTS hybrid. Most players fight on the field, one player plays as the enemy and gets to send a zerg at the other players. Unfortunately the creators decided to put a MMO twist to the concept and provide you with items you can loot. Unfortunately the creators also decided that they want to sniff coke off the back of a hooker and the only permanent items you can get cost your real life money. There is also grinding involved..somehow.

Bots
MMO beat-em-up with robots: build your robot and unleash it on single player maps or in multiplayer with up to 8 players. You can gain levels on your robot to make it stronger, successful combos fill a bar that lets you transform your robot all FLCL like. The game is dated, the combat is uncreative and there is little reward in finishing a mission. If you are looking for an MMO-beat-em-up see Lunia.

Combat Arms
A MMOFPS in a modern war setting. Score your headshots and rule supreme. Fleck0 said it sucked and that he'd rather play American Army or War Rock.

Dance Groove
A game based around dressing up fancy and dancing. Site offers no information.

Dance Online
DDR for people who like to dance on their keyboard. ~66 songs available, so that's neat.

Dark Space
Space MMO that recently went F2P. Fly around in a spaceship and blow up other players or NPCs. To get better ships you have to exploit planets.

Drift City
A driving MMO. Drive around a big city, fulfil quests to become better and better. Looks pretty fun, really.

Enblic
A hockey game with hideous graphics. You play in teams of other players, no NPCs, just multiplayer action with character progression and items tagged on. It plays nothing like real hockey and more like Project Powder and more of these games.

FF Showdown
A football game. The site is pretty much broken and full of Korean gibberish and Engrish. Best to let this one go by ignored in Game&game's portfolio.

Freestyle
a MMO street basketball game. Graphics are cell-shaded and hip-hop-esque. It seems to be set up like Project Snow, which means you start out with a toon that only knows some moves, but as you play more you'll unlock more moves. The problem is that it doesn't look bad, but the site makes it look like something I can't take quite serious.

Gods of Time
Pokemon style battles. No information offered on their site. Best to avoid.

Gold Slam
A MMO Tennis game. Play matches, make your character better, play more matches and so on. Gameplay wise you move around with the arrow buttons and your racket with asdw. I haven't tried this out, but if they can make it fun to play and worthwhile to level up this might just be an interesting thing for the (Mario) tennis players among us. Engrish is pretty bad.

Grand Chase
Some sort of MMO adaption of Super Smash Bros. You play against up to 5 opponents, you gain experience and levels which allow you to customize your character and gain extra skills/stats/whateveros. In the graphical department it has 3D characters on a 2D background, which looks good enough for the genre, I guess.

Grand Fisher
Wherein you fish, get better at fishing and fish with or against other fishers. I have been told there are also fish in this game.

Hello Kitty Online
I'd write a very serious text here, but the site offers no information. Suffice to say that this is a game for manly men.

Horse Isle
Always wanted a pony, but never got one. Now you can have pixelated horse for free.

Human Age
Rewrite 10,000 years of history in this in-browser management game.

Hyperiums
In-browser space management game. This one has some useful off-line management tools and a neat java interface.

Infantry
A fast-paced tactical game in which you order around a group of infantry to victory. If you have a computer from before the year 2000, this game might just work on your PC! Molybdenum mentions that Twin Peaks very enjoyable.

KICKS
Online football game. Has an urban look over it. Probably fun if you like to play football on the streets, but it's raining, or you're not cool enough. Or you aren't muscled like every character in that game. I don't know. It's awesome that games like these are being made, though.

Kings of Babylon
MMO city building manager. This time in a 1001 Nights kinda setting.

LaMB
Dystopian MMO in which prisoners are controlled to do the shitty work the rest of society no longer wants to do. Through playing this game you'll find out what happened and you will decide what side to join. It seems to revolve around some sort of arcade games, it's all very vague.

MetaPlace
Second Life in 2D. You can bum around in it and build a small place with a free account, but you need to cough up money to make something bigger.

MLB Dugout Heroes
MMO baseball game, it's officially licensed, so it won't be complete shit. You create a team, play games with them against NPCs or other players, your team gains exp and you can upgrade them. It has a comic art style and very low system requirements. If you like baseball you might like this, just don't come in expecting a EA Sports title.

My Diva Doll
A game aimed at young girls wanting to dress up a doll and doing things young girls imagine older girls do: work an awesome job in fashion, flirt with cute guys and dressing all cute like. I will have to be serious here for a moment: this game is obviously aimed at young girls, yet there is no information available for parents and hardly anything on 'how to deal with creepy people' on their forum. I would not let my imaginary daughter play this (meaning she will be all interested in this and then play it anyway and oh god what have i done she's showing her panties to a pedo on the internet)

Netropolis
In-browser management sim in which you are a gangster/businessman.

O2 Jam NX
Cute looking game about playing instruments. According to BiggNife it's like a multiplayer version of Beatmania.

Pangya
Cute golf game. From their site: "This is the game for those who didn't fit in with the "gaming" crowd. However, this is not just a simple game. As you play, you find more and more things to do, and you will find yourself deeply submerged in the PangYa."

Pirate Galaxy
A game that doesn't require a client download. You can play through their website. You are controlling a spacecraft and going pew pew on other spacecrafts. For an in-browser game it looks awesome, really. Actual gameplay is a boring point-n-click affair.

PowerUp
A free educational MMO game aimed at teenagers. Learn how to save the planet, play some sort of racing game with your friends/strangers and do some other shit as well. Game looks pretty enough and is developed by IBM. I guess it's decent enough if you're looking for something completely different.

Prize Island
Cheap knock-off of Puzzle Pirates. Look at the cute little animals on their landing page, LOOK HOW SAD AND SCARED THEY LOOK! We have to save them, let us storm Acclaim's headquarters.

Project Powder
A snowboarding game. After global warming has melted all snow on earth humanity develops wormgates to travel to planets with snow to play in it. I could play and download it just fine, Mith crashed twice. My mind boggles.

Project Torque
a MMO racing game with very shiny graphics. Drive some races, raise to e-fame and get the coolest car, basically. No idea how much fun the game actually is, but the concept of a persistent world plus cars is interesting enough. It reminds me of the other "car"-mmo's that got discontinued, maybe the F2P format allows it a longer lifetime.

Puzzle PiratesPA thread
(payment required to unlock all games)
Tycho and Gabe liked this game. What else is there to know? Oh right. This is a game build around mini-games. You're on pirate ships and you pillage other ships (both PvE and PvP). All of this is done in the form of mini-games like Bejeweled et cetera. Insanely cute and very popular. The game runs in java and runs surprisingly well.

Quake LivePA thread
Open Beta
An in-browser version of Quake. Since you gain new weaponry/stuff by fighting a lot it kind of plays like an MMO. Make your own character, shoot some dudes, gain access to better weapons to shoot some more dudes etcetera.

Roblox
Build stuff out of blocks and when people visit/use them you earn rewards.

S4 LeaguePA thread
A MMO shooter recently brought over from Japan. You gain levels to unlock weaponry and armour. The graphics reminded Elimination of Jet Grind Radio and Gungrave, omega71 says it's just fun to run around and shoot shit. And lets be honest, what more can you demand out of a shooter? The Japanese version has a lot of extra features that are not yet translated over to this English version.

Second Life
The internet in 3D. Not much more to say about this that you didn't already know.

Star Sonata
Fly around in space ships and pew pew or do some trading. You can also trade slaves, woohoo.

Star Port
A 2D space MMO with pew pew. You can also trade stuff, no word about slaves, though.

Sudden Attack
FPS with MMO tendencies. It's basically a Counterstrike clone, but you get to keep stuff between maps. It feels dated and is boring.

Tales Runner
A MMO racing game in which you control a character and ...well, race. The camera faces your character and then you run as fast as you can without crashing into exotic objects. It looks hideously cute and the oldest character you can play is 21. Probably aims for a young crowd.

Urban Rivals
In-browser trading card game situated in a futuristic metropolis full of factions that fight each other. You have a starter deck, can trade cards for free, earn more guards by leveling or fighting other players. All cards can be leveled up.

Vector City Racers
A F2P top-down racing MMO specifically aimed at boys between 6 and 12. It's all in Flash and has simple graphics. Just drive around, collect coins and speed boosts. Perfect for if your little nephew is being a pest and all you've got on your PC is porn and Fallout.

A tale in the Desertwiki
first 24 hours free
Hailed by many as as the ultimate sandbox* game. By working together with other people you are able to build things. As a community you will have to work towards goals. When you have reached those goals, you have completed a tale and the game moves on a to another tale. There is no fighting in this game, you will have to work together to achieve anything.

Dark Ages
Free up till level 21
Interesting little project. Appears to be a sandbox-y game in which the players can form their own lore and politics and culture. It doesn't look very modern, but it has style. Worth a shot, if you're looking for playing something none of your friends have ever heard of.

DarkSpace
2 weeks trial
3D Space mmorpg. Command a few ships and pew pew away. Kinda reminds me of the ugly sister of EVE. No idea if it's more fun to play.

Eve OnlinePenny Arcade thread
2 weeks trial
See PA community for more information. Basically, it's a space sim in which you try to do whatever you want to. Penny Arcade's guild is pretty active in politics, but a friend of mine says he has a blast with just mining, hunting pirates down and making a shitload of money by playing the market. Not for everyone, but certainly something you should look into if you like to step away from the high fantasy MMOs.

Everquest
Free up till level 10
Commonly refered to as "evercrack". This was one of the first MMORPGs and it defined the genre. I don't know if this game is still "fun" or if it's more like a study object for aspiring MMO-gurus.

Everquest II
2 weeks trial
You know, like Everquest, but newer and prettier. It follows the same basic model, but improved upon it. Not nearly as popular as other contemporary MMOs, but it's not *bad* or anything.

Final Fantasy XI
2 weeks trial
FF has a strong focus on group play, so bring friends/hire friends to play with. The game has a kind of medieval/steam look to it and allows you to switch between classes without having to jump through too many hoops.

Lineage
1 week trial, creditcard required
This is the game that made Korea go crazy. Important to play for aspiring MMO-gurus. Everyone else will be better off with the other games on this list.

Lord of the Rings OnlinePenny Arcade thread
1 week trial
LotrO's goal is to put the whole of Middle Earth as described in Tolkien's books online. That world is being brought alive with a lot of quests, including epic quests with lots of scripted elements.

Nexus, the kingdom of the Winds
Free up till level 49
Small, cute, 2D sprite based MMO. It markets itself as a social MMO. Looks..promising, in a way. Does anyone know anything about this?

Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst
servers online, client still available
Game has been going since 2000, it won a BAFTA a few years ago. It's a futuristic MMO with a strong focus on teamwork.

Ryzomwiki
A 4 y/o futuristic MMO with swords. It was free-to-play for 8 months, but now they want your money for this cheap and old-fashioned MMO again. It offers the fairly unique feature of creating your own scenarios to let others play through. The game looks painfully dated, though. It does claim to offer near complete freedom in creating and evolving your character and a living world where mobs have behaviour patterns other than "docile" and "kamikaze".

Star Wars Galaxies
2 weeks trial
This game got a lot of flak from the people who played it in the early days. Sony changed the way everything worked and everyone who was used to the old ways believes the new way is shit (not "the shit" just "shit"). If you look at this game without trying to think about how it could be or how it was, you're looking at a fun MMO in space. Give it a try, some time, if you like Star Wars.

Time of Defiance
8 days trial
MMORTS, games last for weeks. Build a base, build an army and attack other players. Provides a massive world. Don't know too much about how much fun the game really is, but it looks okay-ish.

VanguardPA thread
2 weeks trial island
One of the more complex MMORPGs out there with a lot of personal freedom to do what you feel like. The trial island offers one small zone where you can check out the various aspects of the game without being tossed into the huge game world. Although the game had a rough start, anyone who has played it will tell you that they actually did patch it correctly and that it now looks beautiful without making your PC melt.

Warhammer OnlinePA thread
RvR MMORPG, it has some interesting classes, takes place in the brutal warhammer universe and it has some decent PvPing going on. I personally did not like this game at all, but if you're interested you can get a trial code from one of the guys in the PA thread.

Wizard 101
free newbie zone
A trading card game for kids in their early teens. You basically walk around, do quests and what not, but instead of combat you play a card game and when you win you get more cards, exp and other loot. Like what the title hints at it puts you in the role of a starting wizard going to school.

World of Warcraft
10 days trial
The game that almost got my parents divorced. Enough said.

Promising titles

Spoiler:

Allods Online
Beta
Russian MMORPG based on the first Russian RPG ever: Allods. The graphics look very cartoony and colourful. There are a lot of classes. Combat is mostly standard MMO fair, however, teams of 5 to 25 persons can go on a flying ship and use that for air battle against other players. There's a rather strong focus on PvP.

BBU Online
A casual game with a strong focus on sound. Sound works as an indication for how heavy an attack is going to be, but a noisy room can also be used to sneak around. The website claims that you can even spot enemies if you have good hearing.

Cloud Nine
almost OBT
Cute looking Korean MMORPG with nice graphics. It has a lot of potential and gives you a lot of skills early on. It has it's shortcomings, mostly bugs, engrish and horrible chat-support. It dodged some of the usual pitfalls and that fact alone makes this game something worth checking out.

HuxleyPA thread
Closed beta
A MMOFPS with a persistent world. 'production values are through the roof' some say.

Karos
Closed beta
Seems to offer the standard Asian MMO grindplay, but it looks beautiful and the site looks surprisingly professional.

Richman Online
OB starting soon
A sort of MMO Monopoly. Providing both PvP and PvE this casual MMO is very interesting. It is probably the only Monopoly game that allows you to play as an Arabic looking businessman and launch gas attacks at the little baby character while laughing maniacally. The little I've played during Closed Beta showed a game that was a lot of fun and also offered enough in the way of in-depth gameplay. Awesome game if you want to have fun with friends or mess around with strangers.

Valkyrie Sky
Closed beta (again)
A MMO shoot em up, you can pick between 4 characters, take on quests, do raids and what have you, but the actual gameplay is like the scrolling shooters from the days of yore.

Free MMOs are full of the following two types of people:

Those who are too young to pay a monthly subscription
Those who are too cheap to pay for a monthly subscription.

As such, the community in free MMOs is, on average, horrible. This is why I advice you play this sort of games together with friends or people you've played other games with. These games can get boring very fast when you play alone, you need others to have someone fun to talk to and do stuff together with.

--

Looking over this list, I see a lot of MMOs that are practically the same, or they only have one feature that makes them stand apart from the rest. It is important to realise that just because these games are free, this doesn't mean the companies making them don't want to make profit. Especially in Korea these games thrive on so-called cash shops. Shops that sell items in-game for RL money. To make enough cash to pay the bills and get a Ferrari it is important for developers that they make something that people are going to enjoy or at least get addicted to easily.

Asda
Free
In development.
The quote on their site made me giggle. Besides that: this is a game you should play with someone else. You can be soul mates and share exp between each other. You also gain access to special skills. The game looks painfully cute and is obviously tailored towards girls. If anything, it will be fun to see desperate teenagers asking you to be their soul mate.

The funniest thing about this is that Asda is the Uk name for walmart. Walmart, the MMO.

from the little i've played of audition, you pick a song and the game throws you a big list of arrows to try to press in that order. when you do it right, your character does a little dance flourish, and they give you another list of arrows to copy. nothing goes to the beat of the song, so it's not really a rhythm game, it's more like a...copy the arrows game...and being korean and free, you can buy little hats for your avatar and other crap

So ... is it possible to play Cabal Online? It looks interesting, but I can't find a place on the website to even download the client. All the installation section has is "Coming Soon" and the last news post (from January) has that the closed beta has ended. Anyone here know what state the game is actually in?

The keyword for Audition is "Bust-A-Groove." Bust-a-Groove was music/rhythm game released back for the PSX that revolved around you pressing the displayed buttons within four beats, and then pressing a specified button exactly on the fourth beat. You'd dance aside an opponent, and the objective was to get a higher score than your enemy. You could also do these attacks that would mess up your opponent for a while, though you also could dodge it with a special button if you saw it coming. It got two sequels, Bust a Groove 2 and Dance Summit 2001, and the first two games were pretty good (DS2001 changed things and ended up pretty horrible).

Audition is pretty much a direct copy of the game, except Audition is of course online and has some new modes and features. There's the obvious character customization and the ability for 8 (I think) people to play at once. The gameplay is the same as Bust-a-Groove (sans attacks), but features some enhancements, such as rather than each player given the same linear move lists, you can instead have multiple choices for moves to be entered that will branch you off to different moves requiring different button presses, resulting in different dances. It adds more variety to what your pressing so it doesn't get old quickly. It also features freestyling mode where you can press any buttons you want for 3 or 4 buttons before following a required list of button presses. The button lists themselves can get pretty long, with you having to press over 7 keys within a couple of seconds for some songs. You can also activate 8-key mode, where you'll have to use the numpad to use the cardinal directions and diagonals, and a reverse mode where some buttons will require you the press the opposite direction of what you see. There are also a good variety of game modes, ranging from solo to team to couple (teams with one boy one girl and you're both this one long button list with the buttons in alternating colors, and the boy must press the blue buttons while the girl must press the pink buttons) to b-boy (a team mode where each person takes a turn doing a dance move, and then one person on the opposing team will have that list flashed for a second on his screen and must then remember and mimic the same buttons on his turn). The gameplay system is pretty sound, I'd say.

What might not be sound for many people is the sound (har har har). The music list consists mostly rap, hip-hop and pop, and it's really up to your personal preferences as to whether you'll like the music or not. If you can't stand it, you aren't going to be playing the game for long. The music generally made me laugh with their bad lyrics, but I grew accustomed to the songs themselves. It's really up in the air as to whether you can stand it or not.

So I actually got a decent amount of time from the game a while back. I found it pretty enjoyable overall, but that was a while ago and I don't know if it's changed much. But really, it's free. So if you enjoy music-rhythm games at all and are curious, it doesn't hurt try it out.

And Asda Story's website is a barrel of laughs. I'm pretty sure every page there had something that made laugh out loud.

Dungeon Runners
Based on the Guild Wars formula. Which means everything is instanced. Combat is not really exciting and it looks a bit dated. This game is probably fun for a day or two.

Actually, it has very little to do with Guild Wars. It is a humorous parody of Diablo and Diablo-Clones, which happens to also be a MMO. More of an Action RPG meets instanced MMO, with a lot of parody thrown in for good measure. I do agree with the assessment that it's fun for a day or two.

Also, it should be noted that Anarchy Online Classic + Notum Wars is free, but the Expansions are your typical monthly fee MMOs. The two populations (free and paying) do mingle with each other on the same servers.

shadowbane was great fun in the starting areas, but once you get out into the world it gets very bleh. could've used way more polish overall (it rains underwater, lols), but I did like the combat and races/classes. nice to have more untraditional playable races for a change like the minotaur and the centaur

I'm going to do something for people who are interested in this thread. I'm going to go through this list and one by one play these games and do a short rating for them one to 5 stars and hit on some keynotes such as player base, grind, storyline, graphics and fun.
I'm only going to do this because I tend to play a lot of free MMO's and whenever I look at this list it's overwhelming because I have no clue what to try.
I will hit at least level 10 on each game no matter how horrible it is, I figure that's a good amount of time to figure out whether it is enjoyable or not, if anyone has any suggestions on a better way to do this let me know.

*edit*
That being said, I will not spend all my time doing this, I work 40-55 hours a week and have a social life so I won't be able to do this all day but I will do what I can to update regularly.
Also, I would like to work with you Aldo to integrate these mini-reviews with the OP.

First review, if you guys like it I'll do the rest of the list.

Spoiler:

RF OnlineRace/Class/Level: Cora Specialist(Ranger/Crafter) 22, Cora Warrior(Melee Fighter) 10 and Accretia Warrior(Melee Fighter) 10.Rating:Player Base: Medium High. Quite a few people, usually can find someone to group with you. Also there seems to be an absence of prepubescent boys running around yelling racial slurs and begging.Grind: Mild to Moderate. All of the quests are grind based, Kill X number of Y's in the area of Z. However they are pretty well balanced for each level, you will level relatively quickly by just doing each quest as it becomes available, this is also a good way to get level appropriate rares, usually every 5th level quest will give a purple or yellow weapon and every 6th level quest will give a full yellow or purple armor set. One big issue I had is that PK'ers can kill you anywhere.(Except in bases IIRC) This means players for other factions or even yours of high level will go hunt newbies occasionally and it is pretty frustrating as you lose XP per death.Storyline: Pretty bland to be honest. The Realm vs Realm storyline is the only real story. Your faction fights the other two factions for control of the Core; a mine in the center of the Crag Mine area which yields much better ore at a faster rate than standard mining. You will be attacking the opposing factions players and trying to destroy their control center which ultimately is the main objective. Fighting in RvR is impossible at levels below 30 I would say, I was at level 22 and couldn't make even a tiny dent in anyone, then would end up getting one hitted by any of the other factions members.Graphics: Actually relatively pretty, it doesn't seem to taxing on your system and it looks good for being a relatively generic art style. Character's look good and armors are pretty well designed per class and race. The Accretia armors are really cool to play around with, mixing and matching to make a personalized look. The scenery isn't bad either although it really isn't all the notable. There is a good range of different terrains and locales to see.Fun: All in all RF Online is a pretty fun game and I would recommend it for someone looking for something to play from time to time but I would not say this is really what you are looking for if you want a primary game you play for hours on end. Also... bring friends, the game gets about 10x more boring solo.

If you have any complaints about this poster then feel free to: Иди на хуй, Сучьи

AtitD is free now? We should totally get in on that. It's like Wurn with a better UI and an egyptian theme ( and no getting killed by spiders while making multiple hour journeys to the town). Although I find it confusing that I still hold it in such high regard considering that I quit because I felt like I was just playing a single Age of Empires peasant. But I remember it being slightly less boring than wurm which is a plus.

AtitD is free now? We should totally get in on that. It's like Wurn with a better UI and an egyptian theme ( and no getting killed by spiders while making multiple hour journeys to the town). Although I find it confusing that I still hold it in such high regard considering that I quit because I felt like I was just playing a single Age of Empires peasant. But I remember it being slightly less boring than wurm which is a plus.

I'm 99% sure AtitD is 24 hour trial then P2P, and you can only have one trial account, they check your subnet and will actually permanently jail your duplicate account.
Also, at the beginning of Tale3 I stayed up 26 hours straight to get my guild's town set up and running and shortly after burnt out on the game. I hate community based games because I always work way too hard for everyone else's benefit.

If you have any complaints about this poster then feel free to: Иди на хуй, Сучьи

This game is actually pretty good for a free MMO - I spent a good 10 days /played on it over a couple of months with some mates. The community's pretty atrocious as you'd expect from a free MMO, but it looks fuckpretty and the 3-character system is actually pretty good. High level PvP I'm told, is very fun and competetive.

This game is actually pretty good for a free MMO - I spent a good 10 days /played on it over a couple of months with some mates. The community's pretty atrocious as you'd expect from a free MMO, but it looks fuckpretty and the 3-character system is actually pretty good. High level PvP I'm told, is very fun and competetive.

God I wish that game wasn't a boring afk grindfest. It has a fantastic style and the graphics are great. And I love the 3 character set up.

Essentially you create a small nation under a predefined government system (tyranny, theocracy, republic, etc) each giving certain advantages (e.g. bonuses to attack, production, population, etc.). Your nation competes with other nations for gaining the most net value (there's dates for when winners are decided and the game restarts). This is mostly achieved by making profit off the player run resource market (oil/food/weapons) and/or attacking other countries for resource/land grabs. You can compete in an alliance, which provides mutual benefits like protection. Alliances also might participate in large wars against other alliances, involving hundreds of countries.

You get something like 50 turns a day, which may be stored for a few days. This allows the player to play his turns quickly every couple of days, or be more calculating and spend a few hours each day to get maximum efficiency.

I can't find any information on A tale in the desert, all I see on their site is a fancy Download button and it doesn't say anything about how long you can play it, nor did I see anything about monthly costs. If someone can find me some proof, I would appreciate it.

JamesDM, I figured that if people wanted to know more about these games they'd hit mmorpg.com or something. I don't really want to make reviews of all these games, I want this to be more like a small list for people to look through and see if there's anything they might like.

If you want to go through with this, be my guest, but I honestly can't see how I could put this in the OP without making it a ginormous monster. Maybe you could start a blog or something? I don't know.

21/11/07: JamesDM reviewed 2Moons and kinda liked it. He also linked me to http://www.irthonline.com/ Irth Worlds, an MMO that's going to be free to play in two days. The game looks dated, but it sounds like something very decent.

Drift City is pretty fun for the occasional play. It's a racing MMO, and actually pretty fun. Only complaint is that delivery quests where you have to avoid collisions are somewhat hard as other players like to go out of their way to hit you.

I also asked Echo to move some posts around on page 1, because I hit the limit of the OP and require a second post for it. Once JamesDM finishes up some more reviews we're probably moving that part to a website. I think I'll write some about the cutesy MMOs I've been playing over the years. FlyFF and Trickster Online both are very decent. It seems like the developers finally received those English dictionaries I've begged Santa to give them.

Space Cowboy servers will be shutting down on 12/26/2007. Gala-Net cares deeply for our users, and we wish to provide those who have supported us with various forms of reimbursement. E-mails will be sent out in the coming weeks to your respective email addresses detailing any reimbursements that your account is eligible for.

So I downloaded Lunai today and it is pretty fun, doesn't really feel like an MMO, but more like a Shining Force game with online play. It has an actual story and you fight in stages, levels, not in an open world.

The fighting is good, you can form different combos and whatnot, only really played as a knight so far. Also it only has 3 characters, the healer, the knight, and the mage.

So I downloaded Lunai today and it is pretty fun, doesn't really feel like an MMO, but more like a Shining Force game with online play. It has an actual story and you fight in stages, levels, not in an open world.

The fighting is good, you can form different combos and whatnot, only really played as a knight so far. Also it only has 3 characters, the healer, the knight, and the mage.

It's still in some sort of beta-stage. Not quite sure what's up with that. It'll have about 8 classes if they ever get around finishing it.

So against better judgement I'm playing Trickster Online again. Apparently there was a massive overhaul a while back, there's hardly any engrish and the quests make sense now. Anyway, because of this overhaul there are like zero beginner's guides around. There's just no way to see if you're allocating your skills properly or how you can earn enough money to buy your skills and some new armour.

I did learn one thing today: you can better grind on low level enemies that you can 1shot than kill monsters twice your level by kiting. Tearing through armies of cute little penguins gives more money and exp than slowly tearing down giants.

I'll keep playing this game for a while, at least until my new PC arrives, then I'll be busy with playing demos and playing the trial of LOTRO on max details.

So against better judgement I'm playing Trickster Online again. Apparently there was a massive overhaul a while back, there's hardly any engrish and the quests make sense now. Anyway, because of this overhaul there are like zero beginner's guides around. There's just no way to see if you're allocating your skills properly or how you can earn enough money to buy your skills and some new armour.

I did learn one thing today: you can better grind on low level enemies that you can 1shot than kill monsters twice your level by kiting. Tearing through armies of cute little penguins gives more money and exp than slowly tearing down giants.

I'll keep playing this game for a while, at least until my new PC arrives, then I'll be busy with playing demos and playing the trial of LOTRO on max details.

I got a Raccoon to 40, looked at the XP the monsters at all levels give, and said "wait, what?".

Also, Ghost Blue (I think that's the name) is a ghost town (completely empty), so much of the good low-level training is gone. I haven't dropped by in a few weeks, so things may have improved.

Exteel
Free to play
MMO with mechs. Heavy focus on PvP. Looks pretty enough, but I'm not sure if this game is fun to play. It seems like it's mostly about getting the biggest guns and then killing everyone else. If anyone has played this, please let me know what it was like.

I was in the closed beta for this for a while, I'm going to go ahead and steal JamesDM's review thingy.

Spoiler:

ExteelMech/Account/Ranking: Dreadnought, Aeshma, Private First Class (Before wipe)Rating: 2.5/5Player Base: Medium. Plenty of games to play in. Minimal chat, occasional person that tries to organize the team and occasional whiner, but not much else.Grind: High. In order to rank up, which enables you to buy new parts, you will be playing a lot of matches. The parts themselves are also expensive considering how much money you make per game, meaning you were going to have to play a lot to buy things in the first place.Storyline: Nil. You're in a mech, and you kill some things. Then you do it again.Graphics: Quite pretty looking. All the models are well done, and the animations smooth.Customization: Low. Seems to be about buying a set of your head, body, legs, etc. every time you reach a rank that allows you to buy new parts. There are a good number of types of weapons to choose from, but you can only carry two weapons at a time, as well as a second set to switch to. No shoulder mounted weapons or anything like that.Fun: Medium. Gameplay is fun, but the grind required to get new ranks and new weapons makes games repetitive after awhile. No real customization, which is a major appeal of mech games to me.
It is, however, reasonably fun for awhile.

ATITD (A Tale in the Desert) isn't free. You get the first 24 hours (actual playtime, not account age time) for free. After that, you have to subscribe.

ah, thank you.

t MKR: yeah, that's grind MMOs for you. I picked sheep so I can AoE grind later on. Or at least, if I make it that far. Probably not.

t CmdPrompt: I'll throw it on the list. I'm afraid we'll be needing to host these reviews on some other place soon, JamesDM had a site set up, but I'm not sure how much traffic it would get and what else he does with his webspace.